Desperate Times
by Scroungy
Summary: The summary I've created will not fit here. I've tried shortening it, but even that didn't work. The summary will be in the first chapter.


Chapter 1: Me, Myself, and I

 **Summary:**

The timeline has repeated itself: again and again, the 6 l'cie have defeated Barthandelus and Orphan, and brought a new hope to the people of Cacoon. But with every repeat, mistakes are bound to be made. The first one happens to send the gods into a panic, provoking them to create a rift between worlds: a cry for help. What they do not know is the one person pulled through was the least qualified to save a timeline. Nonetheless, he is assigned the role as "Savior of the Universe". That was the second mistake.

 **AN**

 **Hello once again great people of the fanfiction community! I have returned with another story... yes, I just can't help it. Let me give you an excuse as if I were a young child trying to tell his teacher why he couldn't hand the homework in. First of all, I am still working on the other stories, so don't be too upset. I mean that in a way that I will work on that story more so than this one. This is just a sort of experimental thing. Second, I have yet to recreate a solid plot for my other story. I won't specifically name them out, only because I haven't gotten far... and I might rewrite the chapters once I gain better writing skills. I had nothing else to really do (I had actually gotten bored of playing games and watching anime) and I felt like writing. So... here I am, making a new story for all of you lovely readers. You don't have to love this one, but I'm hoping I can get some sort of feedback. If all goes well, I will continue the fic. However, if all does NOT go well, I will try to improve upon the writing, and if it still fails to entertain you, I will sever the fiction from my soul, and it will forever be lost within the depths of the fanfiction community. Now after reading that slightly depressing line, please take your time to enjoy this new creation.**

 **P.S.: I have an actual plot for this, so don't expect it to just jump from random topic to random topic.**

Such a simple task... yet I had failed. All I had to do was hold the position until reinforcements arrived... but why was the opposite team so hard to kill?! My mouse frantically darted across the it's expensive pad, occasionally emitting a small click when I let my finger push down upon it's top. In combination, my fingers continued to rapidly strike the a, s, d, and w keys without any recognizable pattern. Such easy controls, and somehow, somewhere, at least five people were using the controls in a much better fashion than I had been using them in. How could five measly souls beat me at this damn FPS game? I thought I had done everything right, but to my disappointment, the score told me otherwise. Let's see... a few anti-tank guns up the left road... the enemies HQ was placed somewhere along the left, and so that meant the tank depot had been built there too. Along the right Boulevard, uncaptured strategic points sat within the woods that lay precisely next to the street, but the points didn't matter. The thick foliage between the left and right routes made it impossible to cross directly through, even with the toughest tanks. Instead of your usual line of thin trees, a whole forest sat between the lanes. Thick trunks covered at least 100 yards in width, and that was only when you went about as far as a mile after choosing your path at the fork that tied the two streets together. Speaking of the fork... that's where it must've been failing.

Currently, the only people who were occupied at the fork were me, myself, and I. Due to the realism of the microphone system in the game, I couldn't shout for help, as not a single ally would hear me. Sure, we had walkie talkies, but mine had been decimated by a very well placed sniper shot. That occurred at least 15 minutes ago, so whomever had shot the precious device was either still messing with me, or they thought they gave their position away, and scampered off to "safety". Honestly, I was the only one here, what kind of trouble could you get yourself into from a hidden position? And to think my team was losing! Even with the unpredictably stupid acts of the opposing team, wouldn't they think to send reinforcements? Common sense fits along with that idea perfectly, but it appeared as though no one had any. I hadn't seen a friendly team member for at least 30 minutes. I had certainly conjured the idea they were dead, but our support exponentially increased as one closed more and more distance between our HQ. We had everything you could think of! Anti-tank guns, Halftracks, tanks, MG setups, garrisoned buildings, supportive bases such as barracks, or even weapon supply and storage all occupied the team's captured ground. Of course the only reason we had so much was because we were, to put it into kind terms, wimps. We didn't dare go out risking our lives unless we had a plan. Why were we so scared to die? We would respawn, right? Nope.

Once you're dead, you're kicked out of the ongoing match immediately, and you could never join that match again. Of course, you are allowed to join another game and stay within the server, but after each match is completed, the IP is either blocked from you, or deleted, depending on if the game was still running or not. The feature made the game itself much more realistic, not that it needed that mechanic. The game was already as realistic as you could get, and the idea of suddenly leaving a session without any warning whatsoever infuriated many players. But no matter how many complaints the developer company, ThunderWave, received, the rules remained the same. You die, you die. Surprisingly enough, many players continued to play, despite the hardship. They just had to accept the fact that there would be no change.

Focusing back to the match at hand, I slightly shifted my avatar, causing his feet to create a small cracking sound the moment they rubbed against the crumbling dirt road. I poured as much energy as I could into listening to my surroundings, but all I could hear was the delicate rustle of the wind blowing through the landscape. Really, without the war factor, this game was astonishingly beautiful. Everything, even the grass, contained it's own vibe. Nothing in the scenery contrasted or even stuck out from each other. The vivid green of the healthy grass complimented it's surroundings; dark oak trees, distant hills, unforgettable blue skies speckled with pure white clouds, and a glint from a bush just ahead the left road... wait WHAT?!

I forced my avatar to the ground, and just in time to hear a loud crack whip through the gentle air, disturbing every part of nature the noise touched. No enemies for a little more than 15 minutes, and I had been dozing off... what was I thinking? My fingers commanded my avatar to back crawl until a large dark oak tree had hidden the bush from my view. I allowed my character to crouch, but that was it. I felt like telling my avatar to peek around the tree and inspect the bushes to find my opponent's position, but I knew the second I let even an arm barely show, it would be blown off my character in less than a second. One could say I was pinned down, but I had plenty of options. Almost all of my supplies that encumbered my military jacket had been used, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to use as bait. I was sure my enemy was using some sort of bolt action rifle... and since it was only in the 1940s in the game, semi-automatic snipers were a little more rare. Even so, caution was required. I had an acquaintance with bad luck every now and then, and I sure as hell didn't want to meet it at this moment. As slow and silently as possible, I controlled my avatar to take his jacket off and grip the collar. I really hoped my idea - although not original- would work, because this was truly my favorite jacket in the game. It's camouflage design and functionality combination awed me, and I didn't want to witness the destruction of such an accessory. But my character's life was more important. I needed to do whatever I could to get myself, more so my avatar, out of this dilemma.

After mentally bidding the jacket farewell, I forced my avatar to throw his arm out from behind the tree and simply wait for the sniper to pierce a hole through his majestic jacket. Sure enough, the second I let the jacket show, another gunshot rang through the forest and sky. As quickly as my avatar could manage, I swung his head around the tree and stared into the bushes opposite of my position. Sure enough, a small glint reflected off the sniper's scope once again, and I rapidly raised my avatar's rifle and took aim. Didn't snipers know anything about sniping? I mean, if someone were to play a role, even in a game, they would need some sort of knowledge about said role. I might have done some stupid things but still... I smirked at his mistake as I commanded my avatar to shoot into the bush five times, making sure to cover every major spot where my opponent could've been hiding. I heard the enemy player's avatar emit an agony filled scream on the fourth shot, and I continued the fire the next three rounds into the same spot. After my eighth, and last, bullet had left my M1 Garand, the screaming stopped, and I knew I had accomplished a kill. I wouldn't normally call it "accomplishing", but taking in the fact that this was only a game, it seemed okay. Of course, I was stupid enough to think the next few seconds would also be "okay" for me, and to my displeasure, my screen turned black for five seconds before presenting the home screen for the intense war game.

I stared at my screen for a few moments, dumbfounded at what had just happened. My idiocy had just gotten me killed. It should have been obvious to me that the sniper wasn't alone. He may have been a slightly stupid sniper, but my intelligence stooped so low that I didn't even consider the other teammates. Wow... just great. I decided to brush the problem away, hopefully brushing all my anger away too. My body fell back into the chair and I raised my arms over my head, causing my back to emit small pops and a sigh to release itself from my lungs. I normally didn't entrance myself at such a level, but trying to survive on my own was something I needed to divert my full attention to. Now that my attention was elsewhere, I thought of what else to play... so many options. Recently, Square Enix released some of their Final Fantasy games in a remastered version... and that sounded interesting to me. My mind suddenly summoned the topic of Final Fantasy XIII... so I guess that's what I was playing.

It wasn't a bad game, but I wasn't surprised it was the first one my mind dwelled upon. Final Fantasy XIII was the first Final Fantasy game in the series that I played. Aside from the graphics, I found the plot to appeal to me, and there was nothing horribly wrong with the combat system, although compared to today's games, that would be an understatement of the decade. I pulled open my desk drawer, slipped the game's case out and opened it, smiling as I took note of Lightning on the front of the disc. I had bought the remastered versions, but I never played them. Business usually occupied me, but now that I had the free time to play such a old but great game... why not give it a try?

I ran my hand over my computer's sensor near the disk drive, and the slim shelf like object slid out from the main frame of the hardware. After placing the disk in –which I had to thank Square Enix for putting the whole game on one disk and allowing a PC version- I pushed the contraption back in and watched my desktop screen as it initiated the game.

 **AN**

 **Okay, so let me quickly point something out to you. The reason I didn't start with the OC playing FF13 or coming home or whatever... is because it's already done. So many people use the same intro, because it's easy. I'm not dissing anyone, but I feel like writing shouldn't be easy unless I'm an expert, which I'm certainly not. I'm sure I could improve upon this chapter, or even how I write. Hopefully, you were able to gain a little info about my character. Many people either have trouble introducing their character and throw a "character introduction" onto their story, or they truly believe it goes along well with their story. As I said, I'm not dissing anyone, and doing those is perfectly fine. I just chose to use a slower introduction, therefore, I placed him in a situation where he had to made a few decisions. This doesn't reveal everything right away, and in my opinion, you know the character better in the long run. Hopefully I explained it well enough, or you understand my concept. I'm sure I'm not the first to come up with an idea like this. I just thought I would try something different. Anyways, that's it for tonight. I need to get some sleep so I don't nap during class... and to think it's only the start of the school year. Well, leave a review, or do whatever you want. I don't like telling people to leave reviews and stuff. It just seems like I'm forcing it on you to comment or whatever, but I will say any support is much appreciated. Now really, I need to sleep. I only have four hours left. Hopefully, I'll catch you next chapter!**


End file.
